Seanan McGuire (seanan_mcguire) wrote,
Seanan McGuire
seanan_mcguire
  • Mood: sad
  • Music: Phillip Phillips, "Searchlight."

One last shirt update.

I have just received the email from the shirt shop (like, today) letting me know that the Wicked Girls and My Story Is Not Done shirts are finished! Hooray! This means they should be hitting my doorstep right around, oh, Thanksgiving.

I am not mailing shirts on Thanksgiving.

If you need to update your mailing address, now is the time. I will aim to have the mailing party to get these out in early December. Once we hit the party, your shirt goes to the address we have on file. Because opening the boxes will expose their contents to cat hair, I am not doing any mailing before the party. So I will not crack open five boxes of shirts to find your shirt in specific. I am very sorry about this. I am not going to mail hair-encrusted shirts to all our allergic people just to make a deadline I didn't agree to. This particular batch has taken a long time. Some of that is my fault (two months in Europe); some of it is not (people not responding to email/sending in their payments). Regardless, we're moving right along.

When shirts do start going out, it will be in large batches, without tracking. Tracking was not calculated as part of the initial postage cost, and is not something I can afford to do, either money or time-wise. If you have a huge, specific concern, please contact the merch address; we may be able to arrange for you to pay extra and get a tracking number. This will automatically move your shirt to the back of the queue, as it will require additional time at the post office.

Also, this is the appropriate time to note that I will not be doing further bespoke shirt runs. We've been as upfront as we can throughout this process about the fact that it makes no money, and that all updates will be posted here. If you look back through the "people make things" tag, you'll see that I have regularly updated when there was something to say. This hasn't stopped people from using every avenue they could find to ask for updates. It hasn't stopped people from mailing Deborah over and over again. I understand the need to know what's going on, but honestly, I said "this is the situation," and people didn't listen. I can't do things like this if people don't want to follow the rules and listen to the updates. I'm so sorry that there will not be a fourth print run.

But let's end on a positive note: shirts soon! And they should be gorgeous. I am so excited.

Thank you.
Tags: cranky blonde is cranky, deborah, people make things
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  • 48 comments
...go 1 level up... Expand

seanan_mcguire

November 19 2014, 21:22:07 UTC 2 years ago

I fully understand OCD attacks, but that's part of why I'm realizing I can't do this anymore. There are more people in relation to me/my assistants than there were the first two times; even with both Deborah and Kate, it took us months to chase down and verify all the payments, instead of weeks. That created the delays that ran us into my departure for Europe in the first place.

Basically, because we're not a company and not making money, we don't have the man-hours to meet the demand, which puts us in a position where your OCD triggers, and that trigger is what sets me off, since then it looks like people don't trust/believe me.

It's okay, honey. Really.

geekhyena

November 19 2014, 21:33:07 UTC 2 years ago

Thank you. I saw this and my brain immediately went into 'you're a jackass and ruined things for everyone else' mode. -_- I really am sorry.

And yeah, my OCD is a double edged sword sometimes - it makes me great at being organized/logistics stuff because I have to have everything planned out and know what the status is on everything, but if something is in the wind, I get panicky. Especially when it's stuff like Christmas presents. I'm getting everything in place now for the CrossingsCon Indiegogo, since it launches in less than a month and I know that once the ball gets rolling, if we don't have perk fullfillment completely planned out, it will be a huge mess, and my brain won't permit that. You and the merch team have my empathy and offered hugs. You are a wonderful, wonderful person and I look forward to seeing you at the signing next Tuesday.

seanan_mcguire

November 19 2014, 21:39:10 UTC 2 years ago

Never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever order anything bespoke that is not either from a large company or extremely limited in quantity for Christmas presents. I can't promise you, even now, that you'll have these by Christmas.

geekhyena

November 19 2014, 21:42:47 UTC 2 years ago

I understand that now, and the panic/worry has passed. The people involved are getting other things, too, and now that my brain has processed the update's info, it is not yelling at me anymore. ^_^